Detection of vaccinia virus DNA by quartz crystal microbalance

In this study, we describe a detection system for the indirect detection of vaccinia virus by DNA analysis. The system uses quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) as the detection technique and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for amplification. Different immobilization strategies for the capture probe on the quartz chip are studied. For the QCM detection of hybridisation, the influence of the structure and length of target DNA is analyzed. For the detection of DNA from an amplification product, an efficient denaturation procedure is developed. On the basis of these investigations, vaccinia virus DNA is detected with only a low number of amplification rounds and a short analysis time. Specificity can be clearly shown. To enhance the signal strength and to have a further proof of specificity, a gold nanoparticle-tagged enhancer sequence can be used.